In 2006, Marin Alsop was the only classical musician invited to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, alongside presidents, prime ministers, and CEOs of the world’s most powerful companies. She is a native of New York City, attended Yale University, and received her master’s degree from The Juilliard School. She last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in July 2006 at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival.
Pianist Rafał Blechacz was born on June 30, 1985, in Nakło nad Notecią, Poland. He began studying the piano at the age of five and completed his formal education in 2007 at the Feliks Nowowiejski Music Academy in Bydgoszcz, studying with Professor Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron. He won second prize at the Arthur Rubinstein Young Pianist Competition in Bydgoszcz in 2002 and at the Fifth International Young Pianist Competition in Hamamatsu, Japan, in 2003. In 2004 he garnered first prize at the Fourth International Piano Competition in Morocco. In 2005 Mr. Blechacz won first prize at the 15th International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw; in special recognition of his achievement, the jury decided, for the first time in the competition’s history, not to award a second prize. He also won four special prizes, including the Polish Radio Award for best performance of the mazurkas, the Polish Chopin Society Award for best performance of the Polonaise, the Warsaw Philharmonic Award for best performance of a concerto, and the award founded by Krystian Zimerman for best sonata performance.
In 2006 Mr. Blechacz was invited to perform at Warsaw Philharmonic Hall; the Moscow Conservatory with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev; the Tonhalle in Zurich, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has given a series of recitals in Japan, and appeared at the Ruhr, Verbier, and La Roque d’Antheron summer music festivals. In 2007 he appeared in Herkules Saal in Munich, Wigmore Hall in London, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, and Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. In May 2006 he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon for three recordings. The first — the complete Chopin Preludes coupled with Two Nocturnes Op. 62 — was released in September 2007. It achieved gold status after one day, and subsequently went platinum.
Kevin Deas has gained international acclaim as one of America’s leading basses. He is perhaps most acclaimed for his signature portrayal of the title role in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, having sung it with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the orchestras of San Francisco, Atlanta, San Diego, Utah, Houston, Baltimore, and Montreal, and at the Ravinia and Saratoga Festivals. During the 2008–09 season, Mr. Deas returns to the Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Atlanta symphony orchestras, Pacific Symphony, National Philharmonic, Boston Baroque, and Winter Park Bach Festival. Over the past two seasons, Mr. Deas performed with the Pittsburgh, Houston, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, Rochester Philharmonic, National Philharmonic, and Boston Baroque; he made his debut with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. He also sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of Daniel Barenboim with the FilarMonica Della Scala in Accra, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Ghana in April 2007.
Kevin Deas recorded Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Decca/London) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the late Sir Georg Solti, and Varèse’s Ecuatorial with Holland’s Asko Ensemble under the baton of Ricardo Chailly. Other releases include Bach’s Mass in B minor and Handel’s Acis and Galatea (both on Vox Classics), and Dave Brubeck’s To Hope! with the Cathedral Choral Society (Telarc). Mr. Deas last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges, conducted by Lorin Maazel, in October 2006.
Joseph Horowitz is the author of eight books. Both his Classical Music in America: A History and Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts deal extensively with Dvořák in America. As the director of a national education project for the National Endowment for the Humanities, he also created a work of historical fiction for middle and high school readers, Dvorák in America, and commissioned an interactive DVD, From the New World: A Celebrated Composer’s American Odyssey. As an artistic consultant, Mr. Horowitz has created six Dvorák festivals — the first of which was presented by the Brooklyn Philharmonic during his tenure as executive director. Mr. Horowitz is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and a certificate of appreciation from the Czech Parliament for his “exceptional explorations of Dvořák’s historic sojourn in the United States.” He is also co-founder and artistic director of Post-Classical Ensemble of Washington, D.C., and of Post-Classical Productions, which this season and next begins producing thematic, inter-disciplinary concerts in New York City and Chicago.
Repertoire
Béla Bartók’s ballet The Wooden Prince, one of his earliest major successes, was first produced in Budapest in 1917. Its scenario, by Béla Balázs, depicts a fairy tale in which a prince and princess are at first kept apart, and then united, by the enchantments of a fairy. This simple storyline, which suggests numerous possible symbolic meanings, is enriched through a musical score in Bartók’s forceful and individual voice, incorporating influences as diverse as Wagner, Debussy, and Hungarian folk music. The ballet was received with great enthusiasm and produced repeatedly in the composer’s lifetime; he was moved to make at least two concert suites from the score, including the present arrangement. The New York Philharmonic’s only previous performances of the complete Wooden Prince Suite were in February 1975, led by Pierre Boulez.
Frédéric Chopin began his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1829 at a relatively early stage in his career. The composer’s intensely coloristic and free-spinning miniature piano works, impregnated with melodic traits of Polish popular music, are his most often-performed works, but the concertos nevertheless display the fundamental traits of his style on much larger canvases. Like all his compositions, they constituted an important source for future developments in harmony through their genius for chromaticism, modulation, and lyrical pianistic writing. The first Philharmonic performance of the Piano Concerto No. 2 was in November 1846, led by George Loder, with pianist Henry Christian Timm. The most recent Philharmonic performance was in November 2004, led by David Robertson, with Emanuel Ax as soloist.
Symphony No. 9, From the New World, by Antonín Dvorák was given its world premiere by Anton Seidl and the New York Philharmonic on December 16, 1893. At the time, the Czech composer had been in the United States just a little over a year, having been lured by promises of a large teaching salary at New York’s National Conservatory of Music. His sponsor, Mrs. Jeanette Thurber, had implored him to compose an American opera, but Dvořák instead composed a symphony, which he completed in May 1893. During both a public rehearsal and the subsequent premiere, audience reaction to the new symphony was overwhelmingly positive. The Philharmonic most recently performed the symphony as part of its historic, internationally televised concert in Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, on February 26, 2008, led by Music Director Lorin Maazel.
Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.
Marin Alsop’s appearance is made possible through the Claudette Sorel Performance Endowment Fund.
Generous support for Inside the Music is provided by The Fan Fox and Leslie Samuels Foundation.
Programs of the New York Philharmonic are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Single tickets for the evening performances on October 7 and 11 are $30 to $109; for the Saturday Matinee on October 11, $28 to $82; for Inside the Music on October 10, $26 to $72. Tickets for the Insights Series program on October 4 are $20. Pre-Concert Talks are $5. Tickets for Open Rehearsals are $16. All tickets may be purchased online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily. Tickets may also be purchased at the Avery Fisher Hall Box Office, Lincoln Center, Broadway at 65th Street. The Box Office opens at 10:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at noon on Sunday. On performance evenings, the Box Office closes one-half hour after performance time; other evenings it closes at 6:00 p.m. A limited number of $12 tickets for select concerts may be available through the Internet for students within 10 days of the performance, or in person the day of. Valid identification is required. To determine ticket availability, call the Philharmonic’s Customer Relations Department at (212) 875-5656.
For more information please visit www.nyphil.org
